LIGHT / ENERGY
Paintings combined with tangible light sources.
2023 - ongoing.
About:
Lena Zak’s exploration of light in relation to painting serves to communicate the fundamental contrasts that define our understanding of the world, and as a meditation on duality, creation, and the essence of existence. Light, as both a physical and symbolic phenomenon, encapsulates the tensions between presence and absence, energy and entropy, materiality and transcendence, life and death, knowledge and ignorance, creation and destruction. Embedded in the minimalist pieces, tangible light sources transform static works into more immersive forms, embodying the eternal dialogue between these opposites.
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Zak draws inspiration from the universal significance of light across philosophical, spiritual, and scientific disciplines. In both ancient and modern systems of thought, light is often viewed as the animating force of existence — a metaphor for truth, divinity, and the progression from chaos to order. From the dark void of the pre-light universe to the cosmic emergence of stars, light symbolizes the generative force that shaped our world. Zak builds on these associations to explore the tension between the material and metaphysical realms, using light as a bridge between them.








